Hyper-V-SQL Express Backup

[Vmware2024]

I am in need of some advice for SQL Express DB backup programs

Info:

Hyper-V server with SQL Express DB for a financial title program

I need a low cost easy to use/understand for backup and restore.

I have a small Synology Nas big enough to handle backup of this DB

I am familiar with Veeam would the can I use the Veeam Agent
for Microsoft Windows FREE?

Any and all recommendations are welcome

[vnikiforov]

Hello,

Yes, Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows Free should be able to do the job: it takes a volume-level image backup and writes it straight to an SMB share on your Synology. The Free edition is limited to one backup job and has no application-aware processing, so no transaction-level restores, and t-logs won't be truncated automatically if used on the DB, but the backup is still taken from a VSS snapshot, so the data on disk is consistent at the point of backup.

I'm not sure if you run SQL on the HyperV host itself or inside the VM. If that's a VM we are talking about, I would look at Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition instead. It is also free for up to 10 workloads and backs up the VM from the host with application-aware processing, so the SQL databases inside are backed up in an application-consistent state. Note that SQL transaction log backup is not included in Community Edition, same as in the free agent. You can restore the whole VM, individual guest files, or database files through Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server. The same Synology share works as the backup repository. If SQL Express runs directly in the host OS rather than in a VM, stick with the agent.